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Hundreds of Android apps harvest data despite denied permissions

When you download an Android app and deny permissions for it to track your location or other personal information, you expect the app to follow your wishes. However, this is not the case for more than 1,000 Android apps.

According to CNET:

“Researchers from the International Computer Science Institute found up to 1,325 Android apps that were gathering data from devices even after people explicitly denied them permission. Serge Egelman, director of usable security and privacy research at the ICSI, presented the study in late June at the Federal Trade Commission's PrivacyCon.

"‘Fundamentally, consumers have very few tools and cues that they can use to reasonably control their privacy and make decisions about it,' Egelman said at the conference. 'If app developers can just circumvent the system, then asking consumers for permission is relatively meaningless.'”

The study analyzed 88,000 apps in total from the Google Play store. Offending apps included some from Samsung, Disney, and Shutterfly. Google said it will address these issues with Android Q, and it will be released later this year.

Canonical’s GitHub account hacked

Canonical, the maker of the popular Linux distro Ubuntu, had a pretty rough weekend. Currently, the company is looking into an attack on its GitHub account.

According to Beta News:

“On Saturday, hackers were able to break into Canonical's GitHub account and create a number of new repositories. Named CAN_GOT_HAXXD, the eleven repositories were empty and have now been removed. Canonical says that no source code was accessed, but it is not yet known who carried out the attack.”

Canonical has since removed the compromised account from GitHub and they say no personal information was compromised.

But there's more going on in the world than that.

IBM creates radical, expanding smartwatch design

Forget folding phones. IBM has patented a smartwatch design that includes an expanding screen that grows to the size of a tablet on your wrist. In other words, it’s pretty cool ... if it actually works.

According to BGR:

“At any rate, IBM’s newly issued patent for this multi-function smartwatch is nothing if not ambitious. The tech giant applied for the patent three years ago, according to a new report from Dutch tech news site LetsGoDigital (which also prepared the color renderings you see in this post), and it was published last month in the US Patent and Trademark Office database.”

So far, it isn’t confirmed if IBM will actually commercialize this device sometime in the future. In any case, this is an interesting development in folding-screen tech!

And you can't not know this.

Instagram adding a buffer to dissuade users from making foul comments

To discourage people from posting comments containing bad language, photo-sharing social platform, Instagram is asking users to think twice before they insult others, all thanks to newly implemented AI.

According to The Next Web:

“Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, said the AI-powered warning feature has stopped some people from posting foulmouthed comments during the early testing period:

‘In the last few days, we started rolling out a new feature powered by AI that notifies people when their comment may be considered offensive before it’s posted. This intervention gives people a chance to reflect and undo their comment and prevents the recipient from receiving the harmful comment notification.’”

For now, Instagram hasn’t said if this feature will apply to languages other than English. Do you think this is a good start in making online conversations more civil?

I went to the website to check out the design, because I figured that would be a pretty hefty watch. It looks lighter and somewhat cooler than I expected, but it still looks heavy! If they produce it, after a year we'll be hearing about new wrist issues wearers will be having with it, I imagine.

I doubt anyone will ever be able to completely remove foul language. Every time I have seen it attempted in the past, people have always found a way around it, whether using special characters, spacing out letters, or many other methods.

When it comes to using foul language that isn't punished with all-out banning, people will always be determined to find a way around it.

To discourage people from posting comments containing bad language, photo-sharing social platform, Instagram is asking users to think twice before they insult others, all thanks to newly implemented AI.

Hmmm, well I would assume wear that watch on the tube and you will get ridiculed, beaten, mugged or have a crowd of people staring at you. IBM are clearly hoping the patent will get them money in future development by other parties rather than market that freak themselves.

As for the Droid apps ignoring setting choices, that annoys me but what's different with Windows sending data back despite you turning it off as best you can with the options they give you. As I have a Pixel 3 I should benefit from the new Android Q version as soon as it is released.

I doubt IBM will ever actually manufacture that. It's probably one of those generalised patents that is detailed enough to be patented but vague enough to apply to anyone else trying to make something similar. They'll just wait till Samsung, Apple et al come up with something remotely similar then haul them over the legal coals for patent infringment, or force them to license the rights maybe. I remember the same thing happening to Apple last year when they were order to pay VirnetX $500 million for patent infringement over some of their secure comms patents. VirnetX are a well known patent hoarder. I wouldn't put it past IBM to do the same. Patent trolling/hoarding is a reprehensible practice that stifles innovation and slows down advancement. We need some serious patent reform to stop this kind of thing.

Hundreds of Android apps harvest data despite denied permissions - If I deny an app permissions I would expect the OS to enforce that and not rely on the goodwill of the app developer to abide by my wishes.

IBM creates radical, expanding smartwatch design - Just what I want a 'video wall' on my wrist. Please, get real.

Instagram adding a buffer to dissuade users from making foul comments - In a time when people shoot each other because they disagree I hardly think saying "your post may offend" will truly stop many people from posting, especially once they have received the message a few times. Right now it is new and odd behavior.

Remember, any time you install someone else's code on your system, you've opened the door to not just data collection but also the possibility of them owning your system. Not much we can do about the risk of the hardware/OS being compromised out of the box, but don't install random apps! Make sure you truly need it and it actually enhances your life by doing research first! Just like every person you open yourself up to is a risk, same applies to apps!

Just wow. I am literally flabbergasted. Despite the issues I have with Google and Android, I honestly believed that they would have been smart enough to actually enforce the permissions for apps exactly as the user specifies. That is a huge trust issue for me. (I won't get into the 800 other trust issues inherent here, I get that Google is popular.) Addressing this in the future is an absolute joke of a response. Then again, I am definitely not their target market.

Sounds to me like a major security weakness in Android if it doesn't enforce denied permissions. Then again, Google makes their bucks by tracking things so an "error" such as this in the code is understandable...